The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry

Russian Nuclear Plants in Turkey ‘Not Ready Before 2022′, Moscow Times Reuters Mar. 23 2015 Turkey’s first nuclear power plant is unlikely to be ready before 2022, energy officials said on Monday of the $20-billion project that has been beset by regulatory hurdles and complicated by Russia’s financial woes…..Rosatom initially pledged to have the first of the four reactors in the southern Turkish town of Akkuyu ready by 2019.

A senior Turkish energy official said the project would not be online before at least 2022, given that ground-breaking has yet to happen. “The first reactor can be online at least seven years after the ground-breaking so the 2019-2020 date is impossible,” the official said…..

Economic Worries

Analysts say Russia’s economic troubles because of collapsing oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine may also have weighed on Rosatom’s finances.

Renewable energy in Europe is expected to grow 0.8 percent annually until 2020, and nearly half of the growth in demand for power will come from Turkey, the report says.

Economic growth, an increase in income per capita, and rapid urbanization are the primary causes of the increasing energy demand in Turkey.

In order to meet some of the power demand in Europe, 141,000 megawatts of capacity increase in renewable energy is expected by 2020, according to the report.

In 2013, Europe produced 1,095 terawatt hours of electricity from renewable energy sources, accounting for 30 percent of total electricity production, the report says. And 1,400 terawatt hours of electricity production from renewables is expected by 2020, and renewables will make up 36.5 percent of total electricity production, the report says. It predicts that wind power will account for 40 percent of the production increase by renewables.

A terrawatt is equivalent to 1,000 gigawatt hours — or 1 trillion watt hours. According to the online Energy Business Review, 1.5 terrawatts is enough to run the London metro system for 10 years.

Germany, the U.K. and Turkey are expected to assume more than half of the renewable electricity production in Europe by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. Turkey will account for 15 percent of the increase in the use of renewables, including hydro, wind, solar, bioenergy and geothermal, report says.

Turkey’s renewable capacity of 24,300 megawatts in 2013 is projected to reach 38,800 megawatts in 2020.

Turkish nuclear power – an unwarranted venture, Hurriyet Daily News, ERHUN KULA, 12 April 12 “……Studies in France (available from the author), the most nuclear dependent nation, reveal that nuclear energy is more expensive then hydro and fossil fuel powered units, even when the end cost of nuclear power plants – which is decommissioning and storing highly dangerous nuclear wastes in repositories for thousands of years – is ignored. The most expensive and risky problem with nuclear energy is the safe disposal of the radioactive waste. It has to be transported over long distances, stored and monitored over a very long period of time.

A few months ago the Mersin Akkuyu Nuclear Electricity Production Corporation commissioned an “independent” engineering company, DOKAY, to carry out an environmental impact assessment of the proposed nuclear power unit. In its over 100 page report, DOKAY provided a “pleasing” document to its sponsor. As for nuclear wastes – the end product – only a few sentences are reserved, which is quite outrageous.

There are more than 400 nuclear reactors operating in various countries. A nuclear power station has 35-40 years of operating life. After that it must be dismantled and the area must be cleaned up (the decommissioning process). But so far, no nuclear power station has been completely decommissioned in the world. It has been estimated that decommissioning could last about 50 years and it would cost more than the construction cost.

One of the earliest decommissioning efforts is taking place at Dounrey plant, on the northern tip of Scotland. It started more than 15 years ago and we need at least 30 years more to finish the job. After that, waste must be stored in nuclear graves (waste repositories) for thousands of years. United States regulations require the storage period to be at least 10,000 years.

The cost of decommissioning and waste storage will fall upon future generations at huge costs. My American colleague, Prof. S. Frachette, argues that large quantities of nuclear waste is likely to endanger the health, safety and civil liberties of generations yet to be born.

more than two thirds of the Turks do not want nuclear power. A government that constantly argues that it represents the will of the people is actually acting against the will of the people in this case….

Turkish nuclear power – an unwarranted venture, Hurriyet Daily News, ERHUN KULA, 12 April 12 On Nov. 9, 2007, the ruling Justice and Development Party passed a law in the Turkish Parliament to build nuclear power plants in Turkey, which started the nuclear ball rolling. The government argued that this venture would provide “cheap,” “clean,” “safe” and sustainable energy to help rapidly expanding and diversifying Turkish industry. Of course, none of these claims about nuclear power is true. In fact, it is extremely expensive, unclean, unsafe and unsustainable. Continue reading →

Turkey surprises Russian nuclear firm with new conditions, Today’s Zaman, ERCAN BAYSAL , ANKARA, 26 Dec 11 Russian firm Atomstroy export received two additional conditions from the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry on their contract for Turkey’s first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
The ministry announced the additional conditions to the Russian firm in its response to Atomstroyexport’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) report. One of the additional conditions placed by the ministry asks the firm to persuade the residents of Akkuyu and be sensible to their objections regarding the nuclear plant. Continue reading →

Turkish media outlets deny themselves: Atomic power station of Metsamor meets security standards, | Armenian news, 25 Jan 2011, Turkish media outlets widely covered on Monday that the toll of lung cancer patients has sharply grown in the eastern parts of the country where Turkey has border with Armenia. Turkish media experts supposed that the reason of such an increased toll was the radiation flow of Metsamor atomic power station of Armenia. “Anadolu” state-run news agency wrote that special detectors to check the radiation level have been installed in Igdir.
Today, Turkish media hurried to spread news which denied previous information. “Sondakika” news website writes that physician Bekir Dogan declared those detectors installed in different parts of Igdir have absolutey nothing to do with the power station of Metsamor……Turkish media outlets deny themselves: Atomic power station of Metsamor meets security standards – Society – Panorama | Armenian news

Turkey’s first nuclear power plant to cost about $20 bln, WORLD BULLETIN- TURKEY NEWS, 16 Dec 10, On a question about nuclear waste disposal, Lokshin said that nuclear waste would be returned to Russia to be buried. Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, planned to be built by Russian state nuclear company on the southern coast of the country, would cost around $20 billion, a Russian official said on Wednesday…..Turkey’s first nuclear power plant to cost about $20 bln [ WORLD BULLETIN- TURKEY NEWS, WORLD NEWS ]

Turkish Parliament votes for nuclear madness | Greenpeace International, 17 July 2010, Well, they did it. Despite 170,000 people expressing their opposition, the Turkish Parliament yesterday voted in favour of the agreement between Turkey and Russia to build four nuclear reactors at Akkuyu on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Continue reading →

The global movement for a clean non nuclear future – theme for March 2015

The nuclear lobby, the corporate establishment, governments and the mainstream media just don’t “get it”. But the world is moving away from top-down, centrally organised, vertically structured systems. Nuclear power, even that last ditch hope, “little” nuclear reactors – all are part of the out-dated systems.

There’s still a place for some centralised systems, with renewable energy transported by the grid. But along with the now horizontally organised communications – net-working across the world, grow the flexible and versatile systems of decentralised electricity generation.

Above all – the ever more rapid spread of ideas and campaigns. Some, we know, are harmful campaigns. But the movement for clean energy is unstoppable – spreading as it does from person to person – not relying on organisation by authorities and experts.

Indigenous campaigns lead the way – whether it be in America, Australia, Malaysia – indigenous peoples have already shown how they can slow down, even stop, the nuclear juggernaut.